Wednesday, 16 September 2009

Real estate was never our cup fo tea

FOREM says this comment is straight from the founder of dothomes.co.uk which is now up for sale by way of auction.

How many more entrepreneurs with portals feel a bit like this at the moment I wonder? I must admit I have had similar thoughts from time to time. Why? A hundred and one reasons, but fundamentally we are dealing with a very mundane act (a house purchase, house rental) and the market is well served with established players providing a reasonable customer service.

Many new portals have sought to shake up the industry concentrating on the b2b elements (i.e. free for agents to list) and indeed have improved the market and probably the customer experience. But buying a house is still a function the average human being will do only three to four times in their life and won't start until they are on average 31 years of age. Yes, there are millions of us, but the whole process is nothing to get excited about and whichever way you cut it, it has a finite point.

From an entrepreneurs point of view many have immersed themselves within the industry and maybe it just isn't exciting enough to keep their fires burning. That said, the industry is not short of new entrepreneurs who want to give it a go (Zoopla and a host of other new portals), but I suspect a few others may prefer the taste of coffee very soon. For me, I still like tea and will continue to try a few different flavours and this industry won't get rid of me just yet.

The dothomes Auction closes on 1 October 2009, but no information on how to bid, where to go etc etc?